Welcome to Bimmerfest -- The #1 Online Community for BMW related information! Please enjoy the discussion forums below and share your experiences with the 200,000 current, new and past BMW owners. The forums are broken out by car model and into other special interest sections such as BMW European Delivery and a special forum to voice your questions to the many BMW dealers on the site to assist our members!

E46 (1999 - 2006) The fourth generation 3 Series (E46 chassis) was introduced in 1999 and set the standard for engineering and performance during it's years of production including being named to Car & Driver's 10 best list every one of those years! ! -- View the E46 Wiki

did this 2 days ago. takes 30 mins. you should find an oem pump for no more than 150 my jaguar is the same way, way better than dropping tank like alot of cars. at 380 dollars plus 380 id get a new mechanic. pump was 92 shipped.

The harder part is removing the ring that holds everything in. If you don't have the correct tool which 99.9% of us don't have you need to gently beat it loose using a hammer and punch or screwdriver. Hopefully yours breaks free easily. Mine took about 15-20 minutes. Be very careful because you do not want to break the ring or punch a hole somewhere.

I just watched the video above and my ring didn't come out nearly as easy as his did.

Many are, hence the prevalence of us DIYers. If the ring does break, you can get at a hardware store a big screw clamp like you'd put on a radiator hose and tighten it around it. This is actually suggested on older volvos for their fuel tank sender unit ring that gets loose and wont hold the threads as it ages.